


The Tears of Jiangnan: Autumn

by AquaticIdealist



Series: The Tears of Jiangnan [2]
Category: Three Kingdoms History & Adaptations - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 19:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17814008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquaticIdealist/pseuds/AquaticIdealist
Summary: A Love that Could Not Be.Character study.  People die.  An elaboration about certain characters that doesn't really 'fit' with the main series.  Oneshot.In Autumn, the chill is not quite strong enough to overwhelm everything.  But it's always there.  So too is the state of the surviving characters in this oneshot.  They won a great victory, but it's kind of hollow.





	The Tears of Jiangnan: Autumn

The Tears of Jiangnan: Autumn

  
  


** AD 208, Winter.  Months after the Battle of Chibi. **

  
  


Night fell on the Sun family compound in Moling.

  
  


Lights across the structure slowly dimmed, but a single one, far from the servants quarters and guard barracks remained.

  
  


It illuminated a man who sat quietly, staring at the great river.

  
  


Moments before, nearby observers might have heard the following between that man and one of the women living there:

  
  


“Am I your wife, or is she?!”

  
  


Lord Sun Quan, the ruler of the land, attempted to have guards drag her away, back to her quarters, but her husband gently waved him off.

  
  


Thus this husband sat on the river bank, staring at the river that defined this land.

  
  


After all, visiting her would be inappropriate, wouldn’t it?  Even if it was just a lonely grave in Lu Jiang.

  
  


“Xun…”  Zhou Yu, the man who’d his wife had just accused of neglect and loving a memory, muttered softly as he stared at the river.

 

* * *

 

  
  


_ Summer, AD 205, Sun Family Compound _

  
  


It had been five years since Sun Bofu, the greatest champion of the Land of Wu, fell from an assassin’s arrow.  Five years since the Sun Family’s finest was slain in a most disgraceful manner.

  
  


And thus, the second Tiger remained in her den, unwilling to embrace light again.

  
  


Despite these five years, he’d always taken the opportunity to visit her.

  
  


Sun Xun stared at him, face stained with tears.  Her white robes kept an orange haze from the candlelight that filled her quarters.

 

“Xun…  Of everyone in the army, you and I miss Bofu the most…”

  
  


“You’ve come to tell me about duty, about the responsibilities we have.”

  
  


“Wu is more than Bo-”

  
  


“Don’t speak his name!  Not after you, who swore to be by his side, failed to save him…”

  
  


Zhou Yu recoiled as if struck by a blow.  “Xun, I… We… None of us could…”

  
  


“I have no right to see the sun again, not after failing him.  They called us the twin tigers, yet he is gone. And with him, our best hope.”

  
  


“Quan…”

  
  


“Is a peacock wearing a tiger’s skin.  You know that better than I.”

  
  


“Shangxiang…”

  
  


“Is better off forging her own path.”

  
  


“Wouldn’t she have a much better chance, if her sister was there to guide her?”

  
  


“Bao-”

  
  


“Use whatever sweet words you wish.  They won’t remove our shame.”

  
  


“Xun.  You might be right about our people losing their light.  But, as Lord Sun Jian once said, Jiangdong has two tigers.  Why must she lose both when one still breathes?”

  
  


“How can I bear to face-”

  
  


“There was nothing you could have done!  You were there when Lord Hua Tuo made the diagnosis!  Bofu made his choice-”

  
  


Her face glowered once more.

  
  


“Have you no shame?”

  
  


“I’m not the one who hid herself away when millions of us toiled to build what Bofu managed to give us!”

  
  


The sound of a fist striking a cheek echoed through the building.

  
  


Despite the force of the blow knocking him back quite a distance, he stood once again to face her.

  
  


She turned away from him.

  
  


“I guess we did make an oath. An oath with two parts, it is true. And, in your way, you've been fulfilling a part of it.”

  
  


“Couldn't you as well?”

  
  


“No, Gongjin. I couldn't. The oath we made involved both a land, and the one destined to lead us. I failed in that simple tas-”

  
  


“It wasn't simple and you know it. Sun Bofu made his choices for this land. Yes, he fell, but that is precisely why the one stated to be his equal should take his place.”

  
  


“The people trust Sun Zhongmou to lead them. They wouldn't want his sister. I dealt with Lords Zhu Zhi and Han Dang's poisoned hissing for far too long. If I were to emerge now, they would no doubt think I was attempting to seize power with designs 'far beyond my station'.”

  
  


She scoffed. “Unlike you, that lot is perfectly fine with forgetting all about Sun Bofu.”

  
  


“Xun, we need you.  Your mother has started to put up a small shrine, do you know that?  Encarved on it are the names Sun Wentai, Sun Bofu, and Sun X-”

 

At that, Sun Xun just laughed.  The kind of laugh that sent one's spirit flying down one's spine.

“I suppose I am a spirit, a phantom, a-”

  
  
“Xun, w-”

  
  
It was at that point that she turned, and lunged at him.

He felt soft lips press against his, then the force of her tongue seeking his.

“Xun!” He gently tried to push her away.

  
“G-Gongjin.”  She sputtered out his name.  “No,  _ little brother _ , I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you my secret-”

  
  
“Xun, I’ve known since we first marched out of Lujiang.  You loved him, didn’t you?”

  
  
“We all did, didn’t y-”

  
  
“You loved him the way a sister could never love a brother.”

“I…  You were always the most clever one.”

  
  
“In truth, Bao has seen it too.  You’re lucky that Shangxiang is too young.  But I doubt Zhongmou was paying attention.”

  
  
“I see.”

  
  
“Even then, I…  I couldn’t object.  I saw you, you know, moments after the wedding.”

  
  
“Shouldn’t you have been with your wife?”

  
  
“You mean…”  He drew her in again.  “You mean the way I should be with her now?”

  
  
“You fiend.”

  
  
“I should have told Bofu.  He was always less observant about such matters.”

“Fiend!”  Her face was flushed.

“But you must have known.  Those feelings you had for Bofu.  I would understand them.”

  
  
“Indeed.  I’ve known ever since you were that thin, scrawny little boy who tagged along when I would teach Bofu how to fish, how to spar, how to be a man.”

  
  
“I should have told Bofu.  But he went and married Da Qiao.”

  
  
“You could have refused to marry Xiao Qiao.”

  
  
“But I don’t hate her.  In truth? Perhaps she and I…”

“Maybe you two are a better match.  But…” Sun Xun seized him by the back of the head and kissed him again.  “But what about us?”

  
  
“Who’s the one forgetting about Bofu?”

  
  
“I lost my chance to have him.  Damn the rest of them. But I’m not making the same mistake again.”

  
  
“Xun, wait!”

 

* * *

 

_ May, AD 206, Outskirts of the City of Lujiang _

There was a funeral procession, headed for Lujiang.

The entire Sun Clan was there, along with Zhou Gongjin and both Qiao sisters.

Sun Bao, the recently deceased’s younger sister, carried a small child in her arms.

She wept.  Such a small girl, robbed of her mother.

Sun Zhongmou was not amused.  “Who could have been the father?  She kept herself locked in that room for years.”

Sun Bao, Xiao Qiao, and the girl named Sun Shangxiang glanced at the man who trudged alongside them.  A man who had been a constant rock for all of them. The man who had pledged himself to Xiao Qiao as her husband.  Yet none of them dared to utter his name just then.

 

* * *

 

_ AD 195, Spring, Lujiang, Governor’s Compound _

A young man, barely twenty and rather clean shaven, stood triumphantly on a podium overlooking the city of Lujiang.

“Everyone!  We of the South were never destined to bow before anyone!  Our forefathers look upon us and they are smiling! Together, we can reunify our brethren and stand against those tyrants to the North!”

  
  
Behind him was a man and a woman, both also clad in full armor, smiling brightly as he continued his speech.

“Can, can we do this?”  People were muttering. “Those warlords are powerful:  Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and even those who once followed Dong Zhuo.  How can we compete against that?!”

“Simple.”  The woman laughed.  “Our banner flies under that of Sun Bofu!”

 

* * *

 

**AD 208, That Winter Night on the Shores of the Great River:**

Thus Zhou Yu sat there.  The mysterious little girl, who everyone called Sun Qing, seemed to like him best out of all her relatives.  Not a few people commented on the resemblance.

Sun Bao and Shangxiang, the girl’s aunts, never said a word.

Zhou Yu continued to stare at the great river.  “Bofu, Xun… We won. Those northern tyrants couldn’t beat us…  But what  _ use _ is such a victory without you tigers to rally us once more?”

He kept staring at the river, but it never answered him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first bad ending for Tears of Jiangnan. You know, if it was anything other than some fanfic written on a whim.
> 
> I don't really intend for this to be canon (after all, one of the heroes died first of all which defeated the whole point of the original tale.) So consider this what happens if they failed to change history.


End file.
